A Charles Goldie oil painting of a Maori woman who wrote many favoured Maori songs has sold for $450,000 at a sale of
Important and Rare art in Auckland.
‘Memories’ Rakapa, an Arawa Chieftainess, was painted by Goldie in 1910, but tonight sold for $450,000 which was above its estimated starting price of $400,000. The
work attracted eight bids and with the buyer’s premium and GST, the price rises to $540,540.
The sale of Important and Rare Art at the International Art Centre featured numerous other highly regarded artists such
as Gottfried Lindauer, whose oil painting Girl with Gourd shows a young Maori woman with a moko (chin tattoo) holding an intricately carved gourd. It brought $290,000 (excluding
the buyer’s premium and GST), well above its estimated starting price of $220,000.
The Goldie painting was in an original Goldie wooden frame.
Goldie died in 1947, and through his art was considered to have greatly influenced other New Zealand artists and
cultural consciousness. He is considered the finest painter of Maori elders and people of importance.
The sale was held by auctioneer, International Art Centre director Richard Thomson, who said Goldie was always popular
and his art was “exquisite” and “spiritually charged” and his ever powerful portraits of Maori made an unsurpassed
contribution to the history of art in New Zealand.